Today, Amanda Schneider and the Goldman Sachs equity strategy team published an analysis of mutual fund performance.

Among other things, Schneider found that most large-cap mutual funds were once again underperforming the S&P 500. Her sample consisted of 232 large-cap core funds with $580 billion of assets under management. Here's more info about the sample:

Mutual funds invest an average of 89% of their common stock in S&P 500 stocks and 6% other US stocks. International stocks, including ADRs, represent 5% of common stock holdings: 3% Western Europe, 1% Canada, and 1% other. The average fund holds 4.0% of assets in non-stock holdings.

"46% of funds have outperformed the S&P 500 year-to-date," she said.

For what it's worth, this is above the ten-year average of 36%. And almost 60% of funds outperformed in the third quarter.

Will this be on of the rare years where most mutual funds beat the benchmark?